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The Aztec Temporal Universe

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The Aztec Temporal Universe Davíd Carrasco and Lars Kirkhusmo Pharo The Aztec Temporal Universe The idea of the universe can be employed interchangeably with cosmos, which alludes to the order of the universe or the order of the world. (Cem)Anahuac ([entire]"next to the water") or cemanahuatl ("continue something on to the end/persevere in something") are Aztec categories for "universe" or "world" in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs and the Nahua.1 Sometimes translated as "place or land surrounded by water", this linguistic evidence signifies that the Aztec had a spatial and philosophical concept of universe. How the universe was experienced by the Aztecs constitute a vast topic. The diverse Aztec universe The Aztecs (a.k.a. Mexica), a Nahuatl-speaking nomadic society, were part of the final Nahua group who migrated around 1100 AD to the Valley of Mexico. The Aztec founded and inhabited the cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco (today Mexico City) in 1345 AD. A Triple Alliance – comprising the cities Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco and Tlacopan – was established in 1428 AD. The political and military confederation of the Triple Alliance created a hegemonic rule in Mesoamerica. The military advanced Aztecs dominated the Triple Alliance, and their city Tenochtitlan became the supreme capital of a short-lived but a geo-politically expansive empire until the Spanish conquest in 1521 AD.2 As with other cultures, the Aztecs conceived the universe in various modes. The structure of the Aztec cosmos consists of different upper- and underworlds, i.e. realms of various levels of the universe.3 The Templo Mayor of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan was envisioned as a center of the cosmos and empire.4 Moreover, the Aztecs identified with various places of origin: Aztlan and Chicomoztoc. These are represented in manuscripts andmapa 243 Carrasco and Pharo mundi. For instance, cartographic manuscripts from the Cuauhtinchan archive (1525-1565) produced by indigenous peoples of the Altepetl (city) of Cuauhtinchan in Puebla, Mexico exemplify mapa mundi of not only the Aztec capital but also of the related Nahua.5 Cosmology usually speaks to the origins (i.e. cosmogony) of both space and time. In this brief essay, we will look into some ways Aztec time was organized in the universe. Aztec calendars emphasize that temporal realities were ritualized.6 These temporal rituals also mapped out space in various ways as shown especially in the 52-years calendar and the New Fire ceremony. The ritual practices of calendar time are associated with a culture’s world- view and the notion of the human condition (cosmology). These ceremonial undertakings are therefore related to the perception of the cosmological past and of the future, of when the earth and the human beings came into existence and of how and when time and the world eventually shall come to completion. The 52-years calendar (Calendar Round) Several of the Mesoamerican calendars consist of series of interlinking cycles. The largest cyclical calendar in Mesoamerica is termed the Calendar Round of 52 vague years. The Calendar Round incorporates a combination or an intersection of two distinct but interlocking calendars, the 260-day calendar and the 365-day calendar, over a period of 18,980 days. The 260- day calendar is composed of twenty-day names (sp. veintena) permutated with thirteen-day numbers (sp. trecena). Twenty multiplied with thirteen amounts to 260 days. The twenty-day names had a supernatural patron and were associated with natural phenomena. The Aztec 260-day calendar (Tonalpohualli)7 1. Cipactli (caiman/crocodile) 2. Ehecatl (wind) 3. Calli (house) 4. Cuetzpalin (lizard) 5. Coatl (snake) 6. Miquiztli (death) 7. Mazatl (deer) 8. Tochtli (rabbit) 244 The Aztec Temporal Universe 9. Atl (water) 10. Itzcuintli (dog) 11. Ozomahtli (monkey) 12. Malinalli (wild grass) 13. Acatl (reed) 14. Ocelotl (oselot) 15. Cuauhtli (eagle) 16. Cozcacuauhtli (vulture) 17. Ollin (movement) 18. Tecpatl (flintknife) 19. Quiahuitl (rain) 20. Xochitl (flower) The first day in the 260-day cycle is 1 Cipactli followed by 2 Ehecatl, 3 Calli, 4 Cuetzpallin, 5 Coatl, 6 Miquitzli, 7 Mazatl, 8 Tochtli, 9 Atl, 10 Itzcuintli, 11 Ozomahtli, 12 Malinalli, 13 Acatl, 1 Ocelot, 2 Cuauhtli, 3 Cozcacuauhtli, 4 Ollin, 5 Tecpatl, 6 Quiahuitl, 7 Xochitl, 8 Cipactli, 9 Calli, 10 Cuetzpallin etc. The last day of the 260-day cycle is 13 Xochitl. After 260 combinations, the day 1 Cipactli returns.8 The Mesoamerican 365-day calendar, calledXiuhitl in Nahuatl, is quite similar to the solar year but reflects instead a "vague" year. The actual length of the solar year incorporates 365.2422 days. The vague year or the traditional Mesoamerican 365-day calendar, without leap days, was a quarter of a day or about six hours short of the solar year. The Mesoamerican 365-day calendar has eighteen time units (sp. veintena) of 20 days each. The last and nineteenth veintena of the year contains only five days. Eighteen multiplied with twenty plus five amounts to 365 days. The Aztec 365-day calendar (Xiuhpohualli)9 1. Izcalli 2. Atlcahualo 3. Tlacaxipehualiztli 4. Tozoxtontli 5. Hueytozoztli 6. Toxcatl 7. Etzalcualiztli 8. Tecuilhuitontli 9. Hueytecuilhuitl 245 Carrasco and Pharo 10. Tlaxochimaco 11. Xocotlhuetzi 12. Ochpaniztli 13. Teotleco 14. Tepeilhuitl 15. Quecholli 16. Panquetzaliztli 17. Atemoztli 18. Tititl 19. Nemontemi10 The firstveintena is Izcalli. 1 Izcalli continues with 2 Izcalli, 3 Izcalli etc. until 19 Izcalli and the installation of 1 Atlcahualo 2 Atlcahualo, etc. The last days of the 365-day cycle are 18 Tititl, 19 Tititl, and the five days of Nemontemi, 1 Nemontemi, 2 Nemontemi, 3 Nemontemi and 4 Nemontemi. After 365 days the veintena of 1 Izcalli returns. A permutation of the 260-day and the 365-day cycle form a period of 52 vague years since it will take 18,980 days for a juxtaposed date of the 260-day calendar and the 365-day calendar to be repeated in the Calendar Round. A Calendar Round consists therefore of a 52 x 365 day or a 73 x 260-days cycle (94,900 days or 52 vague years), which can be compared to a European century for many indigenous people in Mesoamerica. According to the Spanish ethnographer-missionary Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1499- 1590), the longest me count of the Aztec was one hundred and four years (Huehuetiliztli), which the Nahua called a ‘century’.11 A Calendar Round was completed when the four Year Bearers of the 365-day calendar each had ruled 13 vague years. The Aztecs perceived the 52-year cycle as comprising four 13-year cycles in one great 52-year cycle. The 13 number cycle was repeated four times, generating 52 uniquely named years in a 52-year cycle (4 x 13 = 52), which can be divided into four 13- year quarters. A round circle or calendar wheel of 52 years was divided into four parts. Every part, which represented a cardinal direction, contained thirteen years.12 The 52-year cycle subdivided into four periods of thirteen year contained the four Year Bearers: 1. Tochtli (Rabbit) 2. Acatl (Reed) 3. Tecpatl (Flint) 246 The Aztec Temporal Universe 4. Calli (House) The 52-year cycle began with Ce Tochtli (1 Rabbit) where the number one proceeded to thirteen for four times (of the four Year Bearers) until the return of same date. The 52-year cycle was divided into the four quarters, tlapilli, began respectively with the date of the four Year Bearers, Ce Tochtli (1 Rabbit), Ce Acatl (1 Reed), Ce Tecpatl (1 Flint) and Ce Calli (1 House). Tochtli (Rabbit) was oriented toward the south, Acatl (Reed) to the east, Tecpatl (Flint) was associated with the north, and Calli (House) with the west. Each cardinal direction was ruled for thirteen years. Hence we got this spatial-temporal order of the 52-year calendar: 1. Tochtli (Rabbit) of the south 2. Acatl (Reed) of the east 3. Tecpatl (Flint) of the north 4. Calli (House) of the west The 52-year calendar had both a historiographical and a prophetical function. It was consequently calculating the historic past and future. The dates of the different 52-year cycles were not distinguished in their endless repeating cycles. The Aztec kept records of all chief incidents like ruler biographies, genealogies, wars, plagues, astrological signs, famines, etc., registered in this way.13 The 52-year count implied also a historical-prophetical cyclical principle of a repetition, although not an exact reproduction, of like-in- kind events in the years of the same name. H.B. Nicholson has designated this principle as "pattern history".14 Historical prophecies could hence be integrated in the 52-year count.15 The 52-year calendar ritual practice of time The Aztecs celebrated a cardinal fire-ritual called xiuhmolpilli (“A binding of the new year”) at the end of the 52-year calendar cycle. An ancient fire was replaced by a new one on a sacred mountain within a day’s walk of the ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan at the end of the Calendar Round. The last known 52-year ritual of the Aztec empire was held in the year 1507AD (Ome Acatl or 2 Reed) when Moctezuma the Second (1466-1520) was ruler (Tlatoani). The New Fire ceremony of the 52-year calendar cycle was a major ritual 247 Carrasco and Pharo connected to the stability and renewal of Mexican cosmology and politics. After the collapse of the Aztec empire, the 52-year calendar fell into disuse but the agricultural 365-day calendar and 260-day divinatory calendar survived in minor communities (sp. pueblos).16 As we shall now elaborate, this ritual practice of time has implications for our understanding how the Aztecs conceived their distant past and the cosmogony, organization of quadripartite space of the natural world, and eschatological notions of their destiny.
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